RALEIGH - Acting United States Attorney George E. B. Holding
announced that TOMMY WIGGINS, 44, of Wilson, North Carolina, was
sentenced in federal court in Raleigh on Tuesday, August 22, 2006.
On August 9, 2005, WIGGINS was found guilty following a bench trial
of being a felon in possession of a firearm. WIGGINS was charged
in an indictment filed on March 9, 2005.

U. S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle sentenced WIGGINS to
188 months in prison followed by a supervised release term of five
years. According to testimony at the trial, on April 7, 2004,
Wilson Police Department officers received information from a
confidential informant that WIGGINS was driving a Jeep Liberty
while in possession of cocaine, stored in his sock. Officers
instituted a traffic stop of the his vehicle and a K-9 officer was
summoned. The officers then observed an open container of alcohol
in the vehicle and placed WIGGINS under arrest for that violation
at which time WIGGINS and his vehicle were searched incident to the
arrest. The officers recovered a small quantity of powder cocaine
from WIGGINS’ sock, and a .380 caliber pistol from the center
console of his Jeep. After being taken to the police station,
WIGGINS was advised of his Miranda rights and he admitted to
possession of the firearm. Prior to this incident, WIGGINS had
amassed two felony convictions for distribution of heroin and one
felony breaking and entering conviction. Because of these prior
felony convictions, WIGGINS was sentenced under the provisions of
the federal Armed Career Criminal Act, which mandates at least 15
years in prison without parole for those with three or more prior
violent or drug trafficking felony convictions.

Investigation of the case was conducted by the Wilson Police
Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives as a part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Justice
Department’s national initiative to reduce gun crime. Assistant
U.S. Attorney John H. Bennett of the Greenville branch office is
handling the case for the Government.

News releases are available on the U. S. Attorney’s web page at www.usdoj.gov/usao/nce within 48 hours of release.

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